DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA

CSC209H5S LEC0103
Software Tools and Systems Programming
Course Outline - Winter 2023
Class Location & Time Tue, 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM DV 2082
Instructor Bahar Aameri
Office Location DH-3019
Office Hours T 11:30-1:30
E-mail Address bahar@cs.toronto.edu
Course Web Site https://mcs.utm.utoronto.ca/~209/23s

Co-Instructor Arnold Rosenbloom

Office Location DH-3088
Office Hours W11-1
E-mail Address arnold@cs.toronto.edu

Co-Instructor Robert Wu
Office Location DH-3021
Office Hours M 4-5
E-mail Address rupert.wu@utoronto.ca

Course Description
Software tools and development in a Unix/Linux environment, using a machine-oriented programming language (typically C). Core
topics: software tools (shell utilities and make), processes and program execution, the memory model, system calls, file processing,
interprocess communication (pipes and signals), and an introduction to concurrency, including multithreading. [24L, 12P]

Prerequisite: CSC207H5
Exclusion: CSC209H1 or CSCB09H3 (SCI)
Distribution Requirement: SCI

Students who lack a pre/co-requisite can be removed at any time unless they have received an explicit waiver from the department.
The waiver form can be downloaded from here.

Textbooks and Other Materials

The course website will be used to post readings and other important information, and the discussion board will be used for
answering students' questions. Both are required reading:

Aside from the above materials, you may find it useful to have good C reference. Recommended (but optional) readings will be
posted from these textbooks:

King. C Programming: A Modern Approach. W. W. Norton and Company, 2008.

For Systems Programming. Recommended (but optional) readings will be posted from these textbooks:

Kerrisk. The Linux Programming Interface. No Starch Press, 2010

K. Haviland, D. Gray, and B. Salama, Unix System Programming, second edition, Pearson Ed. / Addison-Wesley, 1998

Assessment and Deadlines

Type Description Due Date Weight
Lab Labs On-going 5%
Assignment Documentation Assignment: Part 1 2023-02-09 4%
Assignment Documentation Assignment: Part 2 2023-03-19 1%

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 Assignment Assignment 1 2023-01-29 10%
Assignment Assignment 2 2023-02-19 10%
Assignment Assignment 3 2023-03-12 10%
Assignment Assignment 4 2023-04-06 10%
Term Test Midterm held outside of class 7-9 PM 2023-02-27 15%
Final Exam Minimum of 40% on final exam required to pass the course TBA 35%
Total 100%

More Details for Assessment and Deadlines

Documentation Assignment

The documentation assignment will ask you to create alinux man page for a new command. You'll be evaluated on your adherence
to the conventions of a man page, the accuracy and completeness of the documentation, and the quality of your writing. Part 1 of
the assignment is marked and then returned for revision for submission as Part 2 of the assignment.

If you are at risk of missing a deadline due to a busy week, you should hand in a working (and tested) version of a program that
accomplishes a subset of the requirements. In the event of an illness or other catastrophe, please contact your instructor and provide
supporting documentation. You must also declare your absence on Acorn. Do not wait until the due date has passed. It is always
easier to make alternate arrangements well before the due date.

Autotesting

As your assignments and labs are submitted electronically and will often be tested using an automated testing program, you must
follow the submission instructions exactly. Any program that does not compile on a CS lab machine or that crashes (e.g., seg fault
or bus error) on any test may receive a grade of 0 as it cannot be tested. Check your submission carefully; verify that you have
submitted exactly the files you intended to submit and that they compile on a lab machine.

Midterm and Final Exam

There is one midterm, to be held outside of class. It is scheduled for Monday Feb 27, from 19:00-21:00, that is 7:00PM-9:00PM
(Toronto time). Please let your instructor know as soon as possible if you have a conflict with another course that needs to be
accommodated.

Makeup Midterm Policy

A makeup midterm is available for those students who must miss the midterm test for a valid reason. This will be handled on a case
by case basis, and must be requested from and approved by your instructor prior to the regularly scheduled midterm test.

Scheduled for Saturday March 4th at 11:30 am -1:30 pm DH2060.

It will be comprehensive (i.e., combining all material covered in the course) and may include an oral part.
The weight of the makeup test is 15%.
If you miss the makeup test, then you are assigned a mark of zero for the test. If the instructor is satisfied that missing the
makeup test is unavoidable, then the mark will be substituted based on the final exam.
Further makeup tests will not be given if students do not attend the scheduled makeup test.

Final Exam

The final exam is comprehensive and takes place after classes are over. To pass the course you must receive at least 40% on the
final exam. The highest mark you will receive if your grade on the final exam is less than 40% is 47%. The final exam schedule is
not yet available but will be posted later in the term. We will make an announcement once the registrar's site has final exam
information.

Penalties for Lateness

You will receive 8 grace tokens which extend the assignment due date by 12 hours each. You do not have to declare the use of
these tokens, simply handing in after the due date will automatically apply them. You can apply at most 4 grace tokens to any
assignment, so you can hand in at most 48 hours after an assignment due date. Late assignments are not accepted after grace tokens
are exhausted. Since there are 4 programming assignments, you could apply 2 to each one and hand in each assignment one day
late, for example.
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 Procedures and Rules
Missed Term Work
In order to receive special consideration, you must email the course coordinator and declare your absence on ACORN. For more
information, visit the Office of the Registrar website (https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/registrar/utm-absence).

In the event of an illness or other catastrophe, please contact yout instructor and provide supporting documentation. You must also
declare your absence on Acorn.

Missed Final Exam

Students who cannot complete their final examination due to illness or other serious causes must file an online petition within 72
hours of the missed examination. Late petitions will NOT be considered. Students must also record their absence on ACORN on
the day of the missed exam or by the day after at the latest. Upon approval of a deferred exam request, a non-refundable fee of $70
is required for each examination approved.

Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship in a university, and to ensuring that a degree from the
University of Toronto Mississauga is a strong signal of each student’s individual academic achievement. As a result, UTM treats
cases of cheating and plagiarism very seriously. The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters outlines
behaviours that constitute academic dishonesty and the process for addressing academic offences. Potential offences include, but
are not limited to:

In papers and assignments:

1. Using someone else's ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.

2. Submitting your own work in more than one course, or more than once in the same course, without the permission of the
instructor.
3. Making up sources or facts.
4. Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment.

On tests and exams:

1. Using or possessing unauthorized aids.

2. Looking at someone else’s answers during an exam or test.
3. Misrepresenting your identity.

In academic work:

1. Falsifying institutional documents or grades.

2. Falsifying or altering any documentation required, including (but not limited to) doctor's notes.

Keep in mind that the department uses software that compares programs for evidence of similar code. Below are some tips to help
you avoid committing an academic offence, like plagiarism.

Never look at another student’s lab/assignment solution(s). Never show another student your lab/assignment solution. This
applies to all drafts of a solution and to incomplete and even incorrect solutions.
Keep discussions with other students focused on concepts and examples. Never discuss labs/assignments before the due
date with anyone but your Instructors and your TAs.
Do not discuss your solution publicly on the discussion board or publicly in the lab rooms/office hours.

All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on
Academic Matters. If you have questions or concerns about what constitutes appropriate academic behaviour or appropriate
research and citation methods, you are expected to seek out additional information on academic integrity from your instructor or
from other institutional resources.

Plagiarism Detection
Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s plagiarism detection tool for a review of
textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source
documents in the tool’s reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that
apply to the University’s use of this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation web site
(https://uoft.me/pdt-faq).

Students may wish to opt out of using the plagiarism detection tool. In order to opt out, contact your instructor by email no later
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 than two (2) weeks after the start of classes. If you have opted out, then specific information on an alternative method to submit
your assignment can be found below.

Informed Consent – Email Lists

As a student enrolled in this course, you understand that you are providing your implicit consent to be included in an email list for
the department to send you non-essential information from time to time. If you do not wish to be included in such an email list,
please request to be removed by contacting one of the Academic Advisors & Undergraduate Program Administrators. Their
information can be found on the MCS Website Contact Us page .

Final Exam Information

Duration: 3 hours
Aids Permitted: None

Additional Information
If you feel there was an error in the marking of an assignment or test, you may request a remark. Remark requestsmust be
received within three days of when your received the grade for that item.

You must provide a specific reason for the request, referring to a possible error or omission by the marker. Stating specific potential
grading errors
for your remark request is mandatory for us to consider your request. We will review your entire work, not just the items you
pointed out.

Please keep in mind that your grade may stay the same, may increase, or may even decrease after your remark request is
assessed.

Last Date to drop course from Academic Record and GPA is March 19, 2023.

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